Tuesday, November 13, 2007

1970's Flashback: Freedom Fighters

The Freedom Fighters was a DC Comics team made up of characters acquired from the defunct golden age company Quality Comics. Uncle Sam, Black Condor, Doll Man, Human Bomb, Phantom Lady and the Ray were first revived in Justice League of America #'s 107 & 108 (October and December 1973) which was one of the popular Justice League of America/Justice Society of America annual team-ups, written by Len Wein and drawn by Dick Dillin. Their own ongoing series premiered with Freedom Fighters #1 (April 1976), written by Gerry Conway and Martin Pasko, and drawn by Rik Estrada. The series lasted for only fifteen issues. Another former Quality hero, Firebrand was added to the team ranks during the run of the series.

The concept has been revisited again in the wake of the original groups slaughter by various super-villains in the Infinite Crisis mini-series, with poorly updated, darker versions of the team taking over the roles of the "much better" golden age icons.

No comments:

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!